Should we bother to practice ecological responsibility?: Being a snapshot of the slow but ongoing walk of a human toward more-than-humanness including a review of A Book of Ecological Virtues: Living Well in the Anthropocene.

Abstract

Are green goals and eco-sensitivity manifestations of delusional human exceptionalism? In this paper I grapple with the question of why/if humans should/must address environmental issues (both local and global) created or exacerbated by human activity. This question can be framed in terms of (a) whether human activity is as natural as that of other organisms and carries with it similar responsibilities, and (b) whether our activity, natural or not, matters in the very long term. It is a consideration of our responsibilities to ourselves, future generations, other organisms, and the earth itself. The recently published A Book of Ecological Virtues: Living Well in the Anthropocene is explored as it challenges the author of this article to confront these issues and their bearing on his and others’ behaviors and actions vis à vis the earth and its inhabitants.(Inuktitut translation generously provided by Brenda Amakłak Putulik)